MitD XIX: The Potted Plant Is Starting To Look Reasonable

[Tubercular Ox]

He even drew a flowchart of his method, because he is incredibly accommodating and helpful. That does not read to me as the type of method someone who crafts stories around the base of a stat block would have.

Yes, exactly my point! Using only his own intuition and an apathy for the rules, Rich attracted the kind of audience that gets concerned when Tsukiko doesn't have enough barred schools, despite barred schools not being a plot point for Tsukiko, and despite the schools of the spells Tsukiko is casting not being mentioned.

But Rich did not trust his apathy to help him write the Protean, so instead he set up excuses that let him ignore its personality, feats, skills, SLA's, and special abilities.

If other people want to believe that Rich promised us an OotsWorld RPG that is 3.5 except when it isn't, then the argument is the same. Rich's interpretation of that promise attracted the kind of audience that is concerned for Tsukiko, but interpreted that promise completely differently in order to enable a Protean that doesn't follow its stat block.

I don't care what Rich's method actually is, he still abandoned it to write the Protean.

Every time we see him in the sunshine

We never see this.

talking about how much he loves the sunshine, or see him expressing a desire to be in the light, he can't be a Hunting Horror, because that directly contradicts one of its most prominent traits.

So rather than settle the issue of why the Protean is held to a different standard than every other character, you try to move on to different flaws of the example monster. I expected this, and it’s why I wanted to talk about the standard before bringing up a monster you could easily change the subject to.

The Protean has that eyes/mouth/limb thing, which directly contradicts one of its most prominent traits, and people are still searching for a comic that is half as good as the comic that excuses the Hunting Horror’s weakness to light.

There are people who reject as too surreal the Hunting Horror flaw that Rich actually took time to write about, while accepting that a Protean flaw doesn’t need any excuse beyond what they can make up.

The Protean has that shapeshifting thing, which is supposed to be key to the story, and Rich can’t find a way to mention it in the story at all. Meanwhile, for the light weakness, Rich made it a thing that the monster always hesitates before going into the light, which is actually a problem for the Protean, because it has no reason to hesitate like that except what people make up for it.

The Hunting Horror’s flaws are worked into the story better than the Protean’s flaws.